


Louise and The Endless Library

by Trollvine



Series: Walkers [1]
Category: Magic: The Gathering
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-04
Updated: 2014-03-04
Packaged: 2018-01-14 12:08:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1265986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trollvine/pseuds/Trollvine





	Louise and The Endless Library

Louise Mousillon  
(Louise is an original character whose life takes place in the Multiverse of Magic the Gathering lore. Magic elements include the use of the five color system of magic, planes and planeswalkers.)

Louise was meditating when she received the message from her companion Vinyael. She was accustomed to telepathic communication, never a shock, but always a little surprising to hear someone else voice inside your own head. The request had been simple enough. Busy working on Kamigawa. Need information on artifact called Wheel of Marnacite. Please research if you could. Simple enough. Louise never bothered to question why Vinyael simply didn't flex the flow of time (her speciality after all) to allow herself more time to do the research herself. She assumed it was relative. While Vinyael might seem to find the answer in a moment, to her own relativity it might take tedious hours of research. But, tedious or not, when there was something to be learned, there was only one place to go. Louise stood and took Wisp, her lance, folding it gently into her pocket dimension, and 'walked.

Space, reality and distance boiled away into the Æther, folding in on itself as she stepped lightly from her quiet spot on Arkhos to Jadra. Jadra, the hub, the Walker Plane. Endless lifetimes ago it had been found and settled by planeswalkers, those who trod the infinite worlds of reality. It was a still plane of sprawling fields and empty oceans. High, lonely mountains brooded over quiet forests. Upon the quiet, uninhabited paradise had been founded The Endless library, a storage place for all knowledge and artifacts gathered from the countless worlds of the multiverse. The Endless Library sprawled across Jadra, large temples, museums and stately buildings, housing row upon row of book shelves. Each hub was connected, by high stone walkways, indoor paths and underground tunnels, forming a linked constellation thats dotted the landscape.

The Library was maintained by Matriarchs, spirits summoned by the first walkers to maintain and manage the library. Little went on within the library they did not know about, and each possessed a vast knowledge of the seemingly endless layout of the library. Each great building was dedicated to a different area of study, and the Matriarchs knew them all. Tall and spindly, clad in simple blue scholars robes, they stalked gracefully between the towering shelves, the bright blue orbs that served as their eyes peering across aisles. Their white hair hissed gently as it rolled over their shoulders with each turn of their heads. 

Louise preferred the giant stone temples overlooking the Great Bay. White Ivory and marble blocks created Abrial hall, a beautiful building rising out of the trees along the coastline. A large central white dome rose above the green, thin white bridges arching out of the dome to the spindly white spires, piercing the trees to rise up and look out across the bay. These were the laboratories, free workshops were planeswalkers could run their arcane experiments. Surrounding the central library in the dome was an open walkway, edged with white columns. Gentle breezes would open blow in across the freshwater bay, sighing gently through the towering glass windows and bathing the outside walkways in cool air. 

Louise carried her stack of books to her usual alcove. From the square base beneath the dome of Abrial hall sprouted four large towers, one on each corner. Louise sat in the western corner tower, her alcove a small gathering of tables, arranged beneath a massive curved window which faced out across the bay. Small golden candlesticks held spindly white candles that glowed with small flames as twilight crept over Jadra. Outside the setting sun slowly burned the horizon orange, fading into darker purple, and then to black, already studded with the early evening stars of Jadras's sky. Louise yawned, silently cursing her kind's loss of once endless vitality, and opened her book. index page after index page she browsed, looking for any mention of an artifact known as the Wheel of Marnacite. Aged papers rustled and crinkled as Louise turned pages and pages, seeing up small flecks of dust that winked in and out of the candlelight. 

 

Louise rubbed her eyes, trying to remove her exhaustion. She stared at the page of her book in frustration, trying to focus enough to read the page, but her mind wandered around in a fog.  
"Wheel of Marnacite, wheel of Marnacite…" she murmured, paging through the index of yet another monstrous volume.  
The candles of the great library flickered lazily, fat shadows moving slowly across the ancient shelves. Louise blinked, sighing and trying to remain awake. Somewhere in the library a clock chimed the hour, the slow gong of each chime coaxing sleep ever closer to Louise's mind. She set aside her book, folding the bookmark into the reference section, and grabbing a new one. She continued to whisper her subject like a mantra, over and over again.   
The tiny flickering candles, the long, slow chime of the clock, and the smell of ancient dust and wooden shelves reminded her of her home, and the first library she had spent night after night in.   
Outside the moon waxed full and majestic over the bay. Lower and lower Louise's head sank, her blue eyes closing, her head resting on the page. 

Louise lifted her head. She couldn't remember her books, only the problem she was trying to find an answer to. She didn't remember lighting more candles, but this corner of the library was bathed in the warm glow of a dozen candles, situated on her table and the tables around her. Louise blinked, suddenly realizing that the previously empty tables were covered in books. The chairs were pulled out slightly, as if expecting someone to sit down, and at each place, like a plate for a diner, was an open book. Louise looked around, gently pushing her chair back and slowly rising. She started suddenly, as each page, on each open book, slowly rose. There was no wind, no breeze to move the pages, but Louise suddenly felt a presence, soft and quiet. The pages turned themselves, slowly and leisurely, settling back down in quiet unison. 

"Perhaps." said a quiet voice. "But, no, not in this one, doubt and doubt…" The voice was articulate, each letter and word impeccably pronounced, clipped and precise.   
Louise stared, trying to find the speaker. but she saw nothing. No spirits, ghosts, no Djinn or shade, just a quiet voice among the shelves. She finished rising, slowly walking around her table. Halfway across the pages turned themselves once more, slowly and deliberately.   
"Hmmmm, no, not here, no words on this page. Time and time and time, i think, i read, i watch…"   
The voice, the same tone, but this time with a singsong tune, and seeming to come from a table more nearby. Louise stared hard at the table, slowly turning towards it.   
Moments passed, with nothing being said. The books, quiet on the table, didn't move. 

Cautiously, Louise spoke.   
"Hello…? Matriarch?"   
She felt stupid as she said it, but moments after speaking the pages slowly turned again. 

"Little crow, little crow, dead and lost this, but, not gone, i think, no, no, still at some place."   
The voice came from behind her, and Louise turned quickly. But there was only tables, candles, and books, each again slowly turning their pages. Louise peered, but aside from the movement of the pages and the shadows dancing from the candles, there was no movement, and aside from the voice, utter silence. 

"Are you a spirit?" Louise whispered into the dusty gloom. "I.. I am sorry, have i disturbed you…?"   
Somewhere, far off in the distance of the library, a shelf groaned. The wood creaked, echoing softly through the aisles. On Louise's left, the pages of one book shuffled themselves gently. 

"Pick and peck among my pages, my volumes. Pages and pages and papers and papers, so much, so much, but here, here for each and every and all…"   
The voice came from Louise's right, the pages turning themselves once more. "But no, not here either, no… Cannot hide, no, no part of me can hide from me… you're a piece, you are inside, and I will, I will find it, find you…." 

Louise stopped walking, opting to just turn slowly in place. There was no movement that she could see, but she sensed the presence still, all around her. She felt as though there was something, someone, pacing slowly up and down the aisles, yet everywhere at once, one person, or a spirit, of the entire library. Somewhere off in the distance, another shelf creaked, wood groaning under the weight of paper and fibers and string. 

"Here, here!" The voice suddenly hissed urgently. "what you needed, what you wanted, for you, just here, and now, this page, the part of me, here, here!" 

Louise looked around, surprised. "Wha.. I, I don't understand, i don't see…"   
Every book, and Louise realized that there must have been hundreds, thousands of them open in this nearly endless library, slammed shut at once. The silence was shattered by a peal of the thunder of covers closing themselves. 

"HERE." The voice commanded. Louise saw, on the table directly in front of her, one book still open. She stared at it, moments stretching out into minutes, but the silence wasn't broken again. Slowly, she walked over, gazing down at the open page. She saw a diagram of the wheel, the machine, with paragraphs of neat, small writing next to them. She settled into the chair in front of it, turning the page, thumbing through the volume. Dust wafted from the pages, scent of ancient paper and wood, soft light and warm wax, shadows flickering, the soft rustle of the pages in her hand growing fainter and fainter…

Louise snapped herself awake. Sunlight streamed through the open window, stars and moon replaced with blinding morning light. Louise blinked, holding her hand up to her eyes to see, meeting the kindly yet placid gaze of a Matriarch. The spirit cocked it's head gently. "Have you found everything you need?" It's voice was gentle and clear. Louise nodded, slowly, until the memory of her night returned. 

"Yes… no, wait!" The Matriarch hadn't moved, but cocked it's head to the other side, patiently waiting Louise's question. "Familiars." Louise hurried. "Familiars, or spirits, shades, something, what, what do you keep here?"

The Matriarch stared at her for a moment. "There is no magic permitted in the library walls, save for that used by we who serve, our familiars and our scrying. Beasts and spirits, all things magical and mundane are kept at bay by our Rune-wards, less any harm come to the library." 

Louise nodded, still confused. "I… alright, i guess, thank you." The Matriarch bowed it's head slightly and turned, walking away, but the stopped, and turned slightly back to Louise.

"There was a story, it's been with the library for so long, few remember it anymore. But they did say that there was… something in the library that watched over it. No one knows what it is. We Matriarchs have not seen nor felt it. We do not believe it exists." She turned and walked away, shoes clipping softly on the stone floor. Louise watched her go, then stared down at her book again. Far off in the library, Louise heard the creak of a shelf.

High up in one of the forgotten alcoves, hidden behind a buttress in a corner, a small, rickety wooden desk sat perched in a private nook. An open book sat on the desk, and after a few moments, a single page turned itself, gently folding over before an empty and silent chair.


End file.
